Entertainment

'House of Cards' Review: Truth Hurts For the Good Guys

Editor's Note: Beware of spoilers. This is part two of Mashable's three-part review of season two. Part two covers episodes 4-7. Read part one here. Part three will publish Monday.

"Information is power," fresh face Seth Grayson, a new subordinate on Vice President Frank Underwood's team, reminds Frank midway through season two of House of Cards.

A master information gatherer himself, Frank knows this more than anyone. But as the good guys — Zoe Barnes' journalism counterparts Lucas Goodwin and Janine Skorsky — are finding out in the Netflix series' chapters 17-20, too much information can hurt them.

The show at this point is excelling because of everyone's intense jousting for information and power, but just as engrossing is watching schemers Frank and wife Claire cunningly attempt to hide the truth at all means, like destroying the lives of the pesky journalists on his tail.

Zoe knew too much for Frank's liking, as we learned in the season's shocking debut episode. Now, Lucas faces a grim fate after being caught in a cyberterrorism setup orchestrated by Frank, an FBI pawn, and hacker minion Gavin, who figuratively slaps Lucas into prison.

Like Frank's favorite ribs at Freddy's BBQ Joint, the season has elevated into a worthwhile dish of meaty maneuvers, dripping with captivating performances unsurprisingly from leads Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright but more notably from the supporting cast.

With Lucas trapped behind bars and Zoe out of the picture, Frank's truth smashers are targeting poor Janine next.

Only time will tell whether they can expose Frank's murderous past to the public. But Frank has no patience or no time for meddling. He said so himself when he looked at the camera and proclaimed his impatience: "Tick tock."

Also fueling the drama is the return of lobbyist Remy, whose midseason relationships with Majority Whip Jacqueline, billionaire businessman Raymond Tusk and the VP's office new press handler Seth Grayson will likely culminate in horrible outcomes for the Underwoods.

Remy Danton (Mahershala Ali) returns in a major way in House of Cards season two.

Image: Nathaniel Bell/Netflix

The power plays behind Frank's back make me wonder what Frank's grand ambitions are in the first place. Are his deceptive tactics purely for revenge against those who prevented him from becoming Secretary of State in season one? Or is that behind him, with his sights rather set on wiggling his way into the presidency?

Raymond, in a rocky alliance with Frank, wonders just as much. "Are you trying to intentionally destroy the president?" he asks Frank after a tiff. Aside from Raymond, Frank must now deal with another stubborn billionaire, the corrupt Xander Feng, who throws a wrench in Frank's sketchy resolutions with China (as well as engages in quite the three-way S&M sex scene in the opening seconds of chapter 18).

If ruining President Garrett Walker is the goal, Frank isn't alone in this selfish ruse.

Claire is working her manipulative magic on Garrett's wife, first lady Patricia. While rallying Patricia to support her cause against the military's sexual-abuse prevention efforts, Claire subtly plants a seed in the first lady's head about her husband's presumed affair with staffer Christina Gallagher. That seed sprouts into marital tensions between the first couple.

Their pain is our gain. Marital strife makes for mesmerizing TV, as we've seen in Breaking Bad and Scandal.

And, well, a first family divided — even worse, divorced — won't be quite appealing during re-election time.

The Underwoods' actions appear to be suggesting they have their eyes set on perhaps slowly stealing the presidential throne while Garrett and Patricia's marriage self-destructs.

It's no wonder Frank says, "Shake with your right hand and hold a rock in your left."

Claire and Frank Underwood (Robin Wright and Kevin Spacey) connive their way through season two.

Image: Nathaniel Bell/Netflix

It's hard to nitpick the Walkers' marriage without assessing the Underwoods' calculated marriage either. Are they really on each other's side, or are they just using each other for bigger reasons that have yet to reveal themselves?

At one point when Claire asks Frank to sing her a song, he chooses The Stanley Brothers' murder ballad "Pretty Polly." Though he sings only a few lines, music lovers know the song ends with Polly dying before her lover turns himself over to authorities:

She knelt down before him a pleading for her life / Let me be a single girl if I can't be your wife / Oh Polly, Pretty Polly, that never can be / Polly, Pretty Polly, that never can be / Your past reputation's been trouble to me / Oh went down to the jailhouse and what did he say / He went down to the jailhouse and what did he say / I've killed Pretty Polly and trying to get away

Eerie, don't you think, if you replace the song's characters with the Underwoods?

Eerie. Evil. Execrable. Whatever you want to call it, it's amusing to watch Frank and Claire's carefully calculated relationship, one that sometimes spawns this dark season's only moments remotely close to being humorous.

Though the supporting cast is far beyond on point halfway through House of Cards' sophomore season — more so than in season one — the series would still be charmingly addictive even if just for the Underwoods' odd marriage filled with quips like this:

"What should we serve the Walkers?" Claire asked, to which Frank responded, "Cyanide."

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